The 16-year-old Cresskill resident was diagnosed with celiac disease at 18 months of age, back when there were no gluten-free menus offered at restaurants and no one had ever heard of rice pasta.

"I've had it for so long, it's like a lifestyle for me. I actually think it's made me a stronger and better person," says Kolodzinski, who wants to fight for all those who are gluten/wheat intolerant.

She is spearheading a fundraiser Tuesday in Englewood to raise money for the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, which is currently working on some promising drugs and studies that could eventually make the condition easier to live with.

Through mutual friends and relatives, Kolodzinski said, she happened to meet Dr. Peter Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center, this past year. Green is a world-renowned expert on the study of celiac disease.

She was asked to participate in a downtown loft cooking demonstration in Manhattan of gluten-free food as part of the Celiac Disease Center's continuing efforts to educate the public about how to live with the disorder. Impressed with all the great work the center does, the Cresskill High School student teamed up with its development directors to organize "Sophia's Summer Party," a fundraiser that the teenager will host at The Kitchen restaurant in Englewood. The event will include dinner, entertainment and a silent auction, many of whose prizes she has been hustling to get stores to donate.

Kolodzinski hopes the money will help speed along various studies the center has in the works, including one involving a potentially promising new drug to help people manage celiac disease.

"The Celiac Center is involved with testing drugs as potential therapies for people with celiac disease," Green said. "We have been very active in these clinical trials, and there are two different drugs being developed. One blocks gluten from getting into the bowel; the other degrades the toxic fragments of gluten."

This medicine would be taken in combination with a gluten-free diet, not in place of one. "It would just deal with a small amount of gluten that may get in, even when people are on a diet. About 75 percent of the people who have celiac disease and are on a diet still get some gluten, unintentionally, or even intentionally. So there is a real need for some pharmaceutical agent to help people with a gluten-free diet," Green said.

Meanwhile, another company is developing a vaccine, he said. "But it is very early in the process."

Gluten is a protein found in grains such as wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye). Celiac disease is an immune reaction to eating gluten. Symptoms include diarrhea and abdominal pain. These symptoms occur when a person consumes gluten and the immune system of the small intestine overreacts to it. There is no cure for celiac disease, but people with the condition can manage the disease by avoiding eating gluten.

According to the most current estimations from a 2012 study from Mayo Clinic researchers, 1 percent of adults in the U.S. have celiac disease.

While many adults in recent years have jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon as a way of eating healthier, experts note that a gluten-free diet is not for weight loss and in many cases can be harmful for otherwise healthy people in that they may deprive themselves of necessary nutrients if they don't follow the diet correctly.

Nobody knew problem

Kolodzinski's introduction to the diet is more unusual. "Nobody really knew what was wrong with me. I wasn't eating. I wasn't healthy. My weight was fluctuating. Nobody really knew what was going on," she said of her formative years.

It took a little while, but through what she described as a "process of elimination" her pediatrician finally diagnosed the problem as celiac disease, which can be determined through blood work. "At that time it was rare. You didn't have gluten-free Oreos or pizzas. That's only been in the past five or so years," she said.

Kolodzinski said she doesn't really remember much of any of this, because she was only 18 months old when she was diagnosed. "My mom has told me a lot of it. I remember just generally not being able to function," she said.

But no sooner did they remove gluten from her young diet than her life got better, she said. Now, it's time to pay it forward. "I really wanted to do this fundraiser," Kolodzinski added.

Currently away at summer camp out of state, she is enjoying a healthy, active summer and looks forward to coming home to North Jersey for next week's fundraiser. When she isn't busy planning a fundraiser, at camp or at school, she and her parents travel, she said, all without any health or diet issues standing in the way: "I've had it for so long. And it really hasn't deterred me in any way."

She wants others who are struggling to deal with the condition to be encouraged. It doesn't have to be a life of deprivation and lethargy, she said.

"I haven't let it stop me. And I really don't want people to live that way," she said.

The 16-year-old Cresskill resident was diagnosed with celiac disease at 18 months of age, back when there were no gluten-free menus offered at restaurants and no one had ever heard of rice pasta.

"I've had it for so long, it's like a lifestyle for me. I actually think it's made me a stronger and better person," says Kolodzinski, who wants to fight for all those who are gluten/wheat intolerant.

She is spearheading a fundraiser Tuesday in Englewood to raise money for the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, which is currently working on some promising drugs and studies that could eventually make the condition easier to live with.

Through mutual friends and relatives, Kolodzinski said, she happened to meet Dr. Peter Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center, this past year. Green is a world-renowned expert on the study of celiac disease.

She was asked to participate in a downtown loft cooking demonstration in Manhattan of gluten-free food as part of the Celiac Disease Center's continuing efforts to educate the public about how to live with the disorder. Impressed with all the great work the center does, the Cresskill High School student teamed up with its development directors to organize "Sophia's Summer Party," a fundraiser that the teenager will host at The Kitchen restaurant in Englewood. The event will include dinner, entertainment and a silent auction, many of whose prizes she has been hustling to get stores to donate.

Kolodzinski hopes the money will help speed along various studies the center has in the works, including one involving a potentially promising new drug to help people manage celiac disease.

"The Celiac Center is involved with testing drugs as potential therapies for people with celiac disease," Green said. "We have been very active in these clinical trials, and there are two different drugs being developed. One blocks gluten from getting into the bowel; the other degrades the toxic fragments of gluten."

This medicine would be taken in combination with a gluten-free diet, not in place of one. "It would just deal with a small amount of gluten that may get in, even when people are on a diet. About 75 percent of the people who have celiac disease and are on a diet still get some gluten, unintentionally, or even intentionally. So there is a real need for some pharmaceutical agent to help people with a gluten-free diet," Green said.

Meanwhile, another company is developing a vaccine, he said. "But it is very early in the process."

Gluten is a protein found in grains such as wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye). Celiac disease is an immune reaction to eating gluten. Symptoms include diarrhea and abdominal pain. These symptoms occur when a person consumes gluten and the immune system of the small intestine overreacts to it. There is no cure for celiac disease, but people with the condition can manage the disease by avoiding eating gluten.

According to the most current estimations from a 2012 study from Mayo Clinic researchers, 1 percent of adults in the U.S. have celiac disease.

While many adults in recent years have jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon as a way of eating healthier, experts note that a gluten-free diet is not for weight loss and in many cases can be harmful for otherwise healthy people in that they may deprive themselves of necessary nutrients if they don't follow the diet correctly.

Nobody knew problem

Kolodzinski's introduction to the diet is more unusual. "Nobody really knew what was wrong with me. I wasn't eating. I wasn't healthy. My weight was fluctuating. Nobody really knew what was going on," she said of her formative years.